Nollywood's ultra low-budget, stylized action, and pulpy stories, have seen a prolific audience cultivated by DVDs sold on Nigerian streets. While local audiences delight in these films, few attain a level of quality that enables a wider audience. By amassing larger budgets and crafting deeper storylines, a new wave of filmmakers (including Abuja director and screenwriter, Obi Emelonye) aim to bring Nollywood cinema to international attention. Emelonye has developed his second feature with an eye toward current Nigerian events within the airline industry. Opening in the midst of the titular flight's technical problems, the script plays liberally with the film's timeline by slowly unveiling the stories that brought these passengers to this ill-fated flight. Suspense is created through the interactions of a hot shot pilot, a spurned lover, a football star, an executive committee from a Lagos business, and a suspected murderer. A box office smash in Nigeria, Last Flight to Abuja marks Emelonye as a rising star of contemporary African cinema.

Director BiographyObi Emelonye is a former football player and lawyer from Nigeria with a long and full history of working with film. Working as a self-taught writer, director, and producer Emelonye has made five feature length digital films produced by his company The Nollywood Factory. Last Flight to Abuja, playing at SIFF, has been described as his most daring project yet as he continues to make films with a quintessential African cinematic voice.

Sponsored in part by Delta Air Lines, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, UW African Studies

Packaged Films

Edwin G Kollie, a 15 year old Liberian war orphan and honor student, always wanted to make a Nollywood movie. So one day he wrote a script, cast the 30 actors needed and in just 3 hours he and his fellow students built an entire African village.

SIFF's mission is to create experiences that bring people together to discover extraordinary films from around the world. It is through the art of cinema that we foster a community that is more informed, aware, and alive!